F4 - Zoobilee Zoo

Wow, I haven't played along with Friday Foto Finish Fiesta in so long - but I am today. Be sure to visit Candid Carrie to see who else is playing. I also mentioned our zoo visit on Tuesday - make sure you don't miss the beginning of our fun. Here are some pics from the rest of our fun day!

Seriously, what's funnier than forcing crying babies to get their picture taken inside a flower?

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TWO for TWOS-Day - Gal Pals

Noone is actually hosting Two for Tuesday today since Debi and Deanna are busy - but I'm playing along anyway for the fun of it. A few weeks ago we went to the Philadelphia Zoo with my BFF and her 1 year old Mackenzie. I forgot my camera, but my friend Christina got LOTS of great pics. I'm going to share some more on Thursday - but for now - here's some snapshots of our dynamic duo - Mackenzie and Katie.

It was amazing to me that I actually got Katie to wear shorts other than stretchy-cotton. I think the fact that we were going to see the elephants for the last time (the last 2 finally moved to the Pittsburgh Zoo) and the fact that the shorts luckily didn't have a zipper and snap that I got her to actually wear khaki material shorts.
Not sure if you noticed, but apparently Katie was worried she'd be hounded by paparazzi - hence the disguising sunglasses and too-small-for-her sunhat. Fortunate for her, the only paparazzi was her Aunt Chris. Unfortunate for her, we could see through her disguise and we still took her picture all day long.

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Three Little Monkeys

Katie sure loves Max and Ellie!

(We love their mom, too, who was so nice to bring Katie and Timmy presents from her business trip to England!)

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This Little Piggy Went to the Market

After a certain car ride with Katie this week, I began to wonder why we glamorize farm animals to our small children. From children's songs like Old McDonald (which in Katie's version also includes french fries..e-i-e-i-ooo) to toys like the See 'N Say (this is a cow..Moooooo). We teach our kids early on what all the animals say and if they're lucky they may even have a farm animal book or two. The very lucky may even get to visit farm animals at a petting zoo or 4-H fair (which incidentally, we may be going to this weekend - the above pics are from our visit there in 2007).

Katie has always loved animals. She has been very delayed in speech, but could say every single animal sound very early. She is thrilled to see them at the zoo and gets so excited when we pass a farm. Incidentally, she also LOVES meat...of all kinds. It kind of makes conversations like this a little awkward:

On our way to speech lessons, we happen to pass a butcher shop. For some reason, next to the butcher shop there is a large pasture which usually contains goats and sheep. Recently there have been loads of baby goats and they've been so adorable! Katie loves to point them out to me when we go by. On our way to speech this past Monday the pasture was completely empty and I pondered out loud..."that's weird, I wonder where all the animals are"...I mean, really, they don't butcher the goats and sheep, do they?!?!? Although somewhat unrelated, I thought explaining what the butcher does might make a good "lesson" for Katie. Honestly, I really don't know what I was thinking.

Me: I'm not sure why the goats are all gone Katie. But you know, that is a butcher shop. The butcher cuts up some animals like pigs and cows so that we can buy them and eat them (or something else equally scary and inappropriate to tell a 4-year-old).

Katie: (horrified) But mommy, why they cut up the animals?

Me: Oh honey, the animals aren't alive anymore - it doesn't hurt them (praying that I don't have to go into "that" conversation, too...why did I open up this can of worms?!?) Sweetheart, people eat some animals.

Katie: Not horsies.

Me: No, not horsies (this is just an introductory conversation, after all). We do eat pigs and cows and chicken though.

Katie: (as if I'm the dumbest person in the world) MOM, people do NOT eat animals.

Me: (annoyed now that she thinks she's smarter than me) Honey, the sausage and ham you eat comes from a pig and hamburgers and meat balls are parts of cows.

Katie: No, mom, it's not.

Me: Well, where do you think it comes from?

Katie: The refrigerator.

Me: (realizing I should have never started this conversation). Oh ok. Well you are right about that. You do eat chickens, though.

Katie: Ohhh, oh yeah.

Me: You know we also eat fish and crabs and lobsters. Some people even eat frogs and turtles.

Katie: Not me, I don't eat fish.

And then we seguewayed into where we get milk from and whether horsies drink milk. Luckily for the meat industry, I'm not too worried that she'll become a vegetarian anytime soon because she doesn't eat vegetables either.

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Way Back and Wordful Wednesday - The Time We Lost Lucky

First off, I mentioned on Monday that I was going to share the conversation I had with Katie about what the butcher does, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. Today, I'm guest posting over at Who Says 8 is Enough? for my sister-in-law Debi while she takes some time to pack up for her big move to PA. In my guest post, I mention the fact that both Debi and I have way too many pets. I'm sure she's probably mentioned hers before and I wrote about all of my pets here. But what I have never shared is the story about the day we lost poor Lucky.

On a Saturday back in November 0f 2005 we were at my mom's for dinner and got home sometime around 5pm. Back then, Lucky was our only dog and when we got home Chris let him out into the backyard. Katie was 4 months old at the time and, as is typical, we were probably at least a little sleep deprived at the time. When it came time for us to turn in at about 11pm I asked Chris if he had let the dog in and he said, yeah, I think so. I thought, well that's weird - he's usually in here (in the office) hanging out with us. So, doubting my husband (as any normal wife would do), I went to the backyard to call him in anyway. He definately was not out back. I called Chris and said he didn't come in, but I didn't see him in the house. We walked through the entire house calling him, just in case. Then we went to the back yard and front yard and called him. We finally came to the conclusion that he must have run out the front door while we were bringing stuff in from the car earlier that evening.

The weirdest part about the entire situation was that Lucky is an awesome dog. He did run out the front door sometimes, but usually just to be with us or to try to hop into our cars. Even if he did take the occasional joyrun around a few houses, he was always back soon and waited on the front porch to be let back in. We felt terrible because we hadn't even realized he was gone. We didn't know if he had tried to come back and then left because the door was closed or whether he wasn't himself due to growing pains with the new baby in the house.

With Katie asleep, we had to take turns looking for Lucky. In the pitch black, we took turns driving around our neighborhood and around about 6 surrounding neighborhoods with a flood light and calling his name. We got out of the car around the wooded areas and called for him. We probably kept this up until about 2-3am. I actually had to be out of the house early the next day because I was going up to NYC with my sister and niece to see the Christmas Spectacular Show at Radio City Music Hall. It was my first "day away" since having Katie. I got up around 7am and went out looking for him for about a half hour before I absolutely had to get home to start getting ready. I quickly made up some "Lost Dog" posters with the picture up above. Chris called his sister and his friend to come down so one person could help him look for Lucky while the other stayed home with Katie. They put up signs at the Shoprite, the McDonald's, and on telephone poles. We called the police, the ASPCA, and local animal shelters.

In the late afternoon, maybe around 3pm, my BFF's husband stopped over to borrow a folding table we had stored in our basement. Our basement is open to the rest of our house. Sort of like a bilevel house, our staircase comes from upstairs, meets at the first floor landing, and continues to the basement - except that the first floor isn't just a landing and is our main floor. Well, like this actually - the bannister on the left is the staircase down.

The basement is a big open living space with a back storage area. Do you see where I'm going with this? So, Eric, my BFF's hubby opens the door to the back storage area, comes up the stairs with the table and Lucky, and oblivious to what we had gone through for almost 15 hours asks Chris, "Why was Lucky locked in the back room of the basement?"

Fifteen freaking hours...no accidents, no barking, and happy as can be when he was let out. We have no idea how he got closed in there. It is a regular wall with a regular door. How does a dog close a door behind itself...and not bark for FIFTEEN HOURS?!?! Fifteen hours of calling his name, first throughout the house and then in the yard, but with someone always in the house. This is the same dog who barks the second he is closed in the bedroom if we're going out of the house. I guess he was fine because he knew he wasn't alone or didn't realize he was a moron who closed himself in there and somehow thought he was in trouble. I don't really know how he would react if he was in trouble because he never gets in trouble - well, except me yelling at him all the time to STOP barking. I guess he found his voice after that experience.

So, that's the story of the time we lost Lucky. Stop by Twinfatuation to see who else is playing along for Way-Back Wednesday and 7 Clown Circus to find out who is playing along for Wordful Wednesday.

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20 Questions

The only thing worse than a chatterbox 4-year-old who asks tons of questions is having a chatterbox 4-year-old who asks tons of questions and is difficult to understand. We usually wind up playing 20 questions everytime we have a conversation in the car...Can you use another word Katie? Is it a person? What sound does it start with? That being said, we do have some pretty interesting conversations while driving. The four-year-old mind never ceases to crack me up.

Last week (on the way to Little Gym class that has recently moved buildings)

Katie: Mom, how do they do that?

Me: Do what?

Katie: Move eveythin?

Me: Huh?

Katie: Move eveythin?

Me: Oh, they packed all the equipment up in boxes.They packed all the boxes into a big truck and then they drove it all to the new building and unpacked it.

Katie: But, moooom - how the gymnastics teachers get there?

Me: (laughing) Katie, they get in their cars and they drive to the new building. Katie, the gymnastics teachers don't live at the Little Gym. After our class is done, they go home to their house. This is just where they work.

Katie: Oh, where their houses, mommy..............

Today (still not ready to let go of our conversation from last week)

Katie: But, mom - how they move it all?

(Yes, this question just pops up out of nowhere and because I'm supermom I know just what she's talking about...I then repeat everything I told her last week)

Katie: But how they move the buildings?

P.S. I hate, hate, hate the new location. Among other things, they have "wisely" faced the gym so that the gym front (where we watch the kids from) faces the open store front window and instead of seeing our kids, now all we see is glare from outside. I am actually so annoyed by this that as the first of our gymnastic friends to see the new gym I sent out a big whine to my group of gymnastics mommy friends, to which my friend Cyndi replied...Come on, Julie, tell us how you really feel. Lol! Yes, I hate it. It may be time to make a change if they don't get some blinds up by the end of the summer.

Oh and in addition to explaining about the move again today, I also gave Katie a lesson on what the butcher does. I think I'll save that story for tomorrow, though.

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Yes, I'm ashamed.

Yesterday I met my sister for a playdate at Ikea. Yup, you heard me. First we ate lunch. Chris actually met us, too, since he was working nearby for the day. Then we signed the big kids into the indoor playground (complete with ball pit, rock climbing, tv's, and child caretakers) for 1 hour. Timmy and I headed off to shop while my sister finished up some end of the school year paperwork by herself in the cafeteria.
So, what exactly am I ashamed about? Well, I knew it would happen eventually, but I am ashamed at my weakness for staying away from Ikea. My last shopping experience there (back in March - when I took the above pictures) was without question the worst experience of my life...well, the aftermath was anyway. But still, I went back. Hey, I'm addicted to shopping my daughter loves to play there. What am I supposed to do?

After my last shopping experience, I posted this at the Secret Spineless Whine blog:

I was actually brought to tears today...seriously...because I was so angry after I got off the phone with an IKEA customer service rep.

I still can't start blogging all the details yet because I start to hyperventilate, but eventually I'll provide all the gory details. (Sorry, this never actually happened because I got sidetracked with life.)

To make a long story short...they are thieves. They charged me for 5 large containers instead of 1 large and 4 small...difference of 16 lousy dollars. I called as soon as I got home and saw that my receipt was wrong (which I never even actually do, but decided to because my sister was charged for 2 of something she only bought 1 of). This is an item that I specifically told the cashier that I had different size items of and to please UNSTACK them and make sure to ring them up individually.

And what was the wonderful reaction of customer service today (the short version...trust me...) - they reviewed the security footage (I'm sure) and that I did in FACT buy 5 large containers and they would NOT credit me the difference.

PLEASE tell me how is this possible when I am sitting at home with ONE large container and FOUR small ones?!?!?

When I told him that they stacked exactly the same way - that they would never be able to tell the difference on the security footage (that I KNOW they didn't watch), I was informed that I was wrong - they do NOT stack together the same way.

So...I am a thief AND I'm performing magic tricks at home...oh GOD, I'm starting to hyperventilate again....

After speaking to the customer service rep's supervisor a few days later, I did eventually get credited for the $16. She still swore up and down that they did review security footage. It's funny, in their cafeteria they have signs about how the customers need to clear their own plates in order for them to continue to offer low prices. Imagine how much cheaper everything would be if they didn't have to take the time to review video camera surveillance everytime someone called to explain that they were jipped. On the other hand, I guess that time is counterbalanced from the money they try (and probably succeed many times) from stealing from their customers.

In case anyone from Ikea market research is reading this - yes, it takes exactly 4 months for a customer to recover from being ripped off, lied to, and repeatedly called a liar (yes, I know he didn't call me "a liar", as the rep repeatedly told me, but how exactly is that different from being told repeatedly that what you are saying is not true because they have video to prove it?)

All's well that ends well, I suppose. I got some new kid plates and bowls, started on my Christmas shopping for the kids, and got a great new shelf to store the baby toys in Timmy's new play area.

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